Widower hangs self in QC

MANILA, Philippines - A 67-year-old widower allegedly hanged himself on a tree in Quezon City before dawn yesterday.

Virgilio Tagudin was found hanging from a santol tree near his home in Barangay Balambato just before 2 a.m., said investigator Cristituto Zaldarriaga of the Quezon City Police District-Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit.

Zaldarriaga said the victim allegedly used a nylon cord that was looped around his neck and tied to a branch of the tree.

The victim’s daughter, Josephine, told police she last saw her father alive at around 1 a.m. yesterday, when he went out of the house and bid her goodbye, Zaldarriaga said.

She said she thought nothing of her father’s words when he left, but started searching for him when he did not come back and was shocked to find him hanging from a tree.

Josephine told police that two weeks ago, her father asked for money so he could return to their home province in Bicol because he found life difficult in the city. She failed to give her father the money, Zaldarriaga said.